A Cold Welcome：The Little Ice Age and Europe’s Encounter with North America

376 Pages·2017·8.261 MB·English

by  Sam White

A COLD WELCOME

A C O L D W E L C O M E
The Little Ice Age and Eu rope’s Encounter with North Amer i ca
∏
Sam White
Cambridge, Mas sa chu setts
London, England
2017
Copyright © 2017 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca
Maps and illustrations copyright © 2017 by Sam White.
First Printing
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: White, Sam, 1980– author.
Title: A cold welcome : the Little Ice Age and Eu rope’s encounter with
North Amer i ca / Sam White.
Description: Cambridge, Mas sa chu setts : Harvard University Press, 2017. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017016539 | ISBN 9780674971929 (alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Europeans— North Amer i ca— History. | Indians of North Amer i ca—
First contact with Eu ro pe ans. | Human beings— Effect of climate on— North Amer i ca. |
Archaeology and history— North Amer i ca. | North Amer i ca— History— Colonial period,
ca. 1600–1775. | North Amer i ca— Discovery and exploration.
Classification: LCC E46 .W48 2017 | DDC 970.01— dc23
LC rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2017016539
Jacket photograph:
Above: Winter Twilight Near Albany, 1858 (oil on linen) by George Henry Boughton (1833–
1905)/Collection of the New York Historical Society/Bridgeman Images; Below: The Susan
Constant 1607, illustration from Ships that Have Made History, published by Peter Davies and
Lovat Dickson, 1936 (color lithograph), by Gregory Robinson/Private Collection/Bridgeman
Images
Jacket design: Jill Breitbarth
To my parents, and the memory of my grandparents

Contents
List of Maps • ix
Author’s Note • xi
Introduction • 1
1. Where Every thing Must Be Burning • 9
2. Such Great Snows We Thought We Were Dead Men • 28
3. The Land Itself Would Wage War • 50
4. Bitter Remedies • 70
5. We Had Changed Summer with Winter • 88
6. Destroyed with Cruel Disease • 109
7. Our Former Hopes Were Frozen to Death • 132
8. Winter for Eight Months and Hell for Four • 154
9. Death Follows Us Everywhere • 186
10. Such Won ders of Afflictions • 229
Conclusion • 250
Notes • 259
Acknowl edgments • 351
Index • 353

Maps
1.1. Mercator projection of the North Atlantic • 12
1.2. Simplified schema of atmospheric circulation • 15
1.3. Simplified schema of classical meteorology
and geography • 17
2.1. Early Spanish explorations around the
southeastern coast • 37
2.2. Early Spanish expeditions into La Florida • 39
3.1. The Roanoke colony and surrounding region • 59
5.1. The Frobisher expeditions • 97
5.2. The Davis expeditions • 101
5.3. The Waymouth and Knight expeditions • 103
5.4. The Jamestown colony and surrounding region • 107
6.1. The Native world of the lower Chesapeake • 116
7.1. The Gosnold and Waymouth expeditions • 139
7.2. The Popham (Sagadahoc) colony • 144
7.3. The voyages of Henry Hudson • 151
8.1. Routes of the Coronado and Oñate expeditions • 164
8.2. Early Spanish exploration of the California coast • 179
9.1. The Cartier expeditions • 190
9.2. Champlain in Canada and New E ngland • 218